


Tricks and Battles

by LadyBrooke



Category: Blood Under the Bridge - Frightened Rabbit
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Magical War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-07 23:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11069169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: “But for you, I might resort to more tricks and fewer battles. What difference does it make to me if the chaos and suffering comes from a trick instead of a battle?”





	Tricks and Battles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shadow_lover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_lover/gifts).



He took the pot off the fire, setting it to the side to cool, and looked up as she appeared in the room.

The other fae kicked her boots into the wall as she removed them, and tossed the rest of her belongings to the side.

“Did something happen while you were out?” he finally asked, after watching her glare at the clasp of her cloak while trying to undo it.

“There was another human wandering around today, who decided that they really needed to kill whatever non-humans they came across. He had two vampires cornered with fire, so I had to break it up and rescue the two idiots before they could get burnt to a crisp, and the human probably managed to break out of the spell I set because the vampires couldn’t keep from showing off as they left.” She finally got the clasp undone and threw the cloak to the floor. “I just want to go back to playing tricks on humans and not having to deal with them trying to murder us all.”

“I know you do,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen for some time.”

“Of course it won’t,” she snapped. “Idiots keep telling them how to kill us – fire for vampires, iron for fairy-folk, and who knows what I’ll have to deal with tomorrow? It’s probably more of your former court, trying to help the poor humans.”

“Who did they try to kill with iron?” He took a step forward, ready to grab his herbs and vanish to treat them. As he stepped forward, she tilted to the side and fell to the ground. She grabbed her shoulder as she fell, and he knelt to pull her dress down off her shoulder, taking in the red lines running down her arm and chest from the wound. "You didn’t tell me you were the one who got stabbed.”

“I didn’t have the chance to tell you,” she said as he leaned down and sucked the poison out. She groaned as he did and then clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from making any more noise.  

Finally he finished and sat back up, grabbing for his herbs.  

“Clean out your mouth,” she grumbled, struggling to sit up. “That is not what it’s for.”

He spat the poison out on the ground, and then looked at her as he packed the wound to treat it. “You were the one who decided to go running into a fight between two vampires and a human and got stabbed with an iron blade. I would have thought you would know that iron is poisonous.”

“It is, but I’ll recover. Your mouth is supposed to kiss me, not suck my blood out. You’re not a vampire,” she said.

“No, that’s what you were trying to protect. I know you like them, but do you have to go protect every dark being and creature you run across?” He took a rag out of his pocket and tried to wrap the wound in it.

“I don’t like them, I like what they do. And you tried to help a human last year, and where did that get us?”

He rolled his eyes. “I know, you had to stop hating me for long enough to rescue me and then you never quite managed to go back to hating me enough to leave me alone.”

She snorted. “If I left you alone, you would get killed by a human in two days.”

“I cannot dispute that, but surely you can understand that I worry about you fighting them,” he said. “I do not want you to die.”

“We’re in a war, love, there’s no telling if either of us will live through the whole thing or if we’ll die.” She sat up all the way, taking a deep breath as he reached out to prop her up. “I can’t live my life in hiding, nor will I give up and let them go without tricking them.”

“Why can’t you be selfish, like we always said you all were?” He gestured with his free hand, the other still clasping her shoulder to keep her up. “Would it really hurt you to just leave this all behind and come with me?”

“Oh, but I am selfish.” She smiled. “I delight in their suffering, the humans who have fallen to tricks and the ones who have fallen beneath my blade. I need that chaos to thrive.”

“You could come play tricks on some other beings elsewhere. Fae, vampires, demons, any of them would be less dangerous than this.” He picked up her hand. “Please, just stop fighting them this much.”

She touched a hand to his face. “I can’t, and you know that or you would be trying to trick me into agreeing instead of begging me – don’t pretend you Seelie don’t play just as many tricks as we do, I know that’s a lie.” She smiled again, this time more open and less dangerous. “But for you, I might resort to more tricks and fewer battles. What difference does it make to me if the chaos and suffering comes from a trick instead of a battle?”

“Would you really?”

She laughed. “I’m too tired to fight at the moment, either them or you. We fought enough years ago, and if things change, we might fight again. So for now, yes, I would.”

“That’s all I can ask of you,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand briefly.

She grasped his hand back. “That’s all I would permit you to ask of me.”

“I know.” He looked back down at her wound and winced.

“It will heal, as will all of this. It’s just a temporary pause in how things should be,” she said, catching his gaze.

“And when this is all over?” he asked.

“When this is all over you go back to helping humans and I go back to tricking them, so not that different from what we’re doing now.” She raised an eyebrow. “Will that be the breaking point for you?”

He shook his head. “I knew who you were when we started all of this. You’ll keep tricking them, I’ll keep helping them out of your tricks, and we’ll continue that way, I suppose.”

“That,” she said, “seems like a very interesting way to flirt.”

His cheeks flushed pink. “You know that's not how I meant it.”

“Of course not. You never mean it the fun way.” She grabbed his hair in her hands and pulled him down for a kiss. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t take it that way, though I suppose you’ll make me wait until this is healed.”

“Consider it an encouragement to get well quickly and take part in less chaos,” he said, sitting back where he was out of reach.

“But that’s boring.”

“It is.” He grinned. “But what comes afterwards will be interesting enough even for you, I suspect.”

She laughed. “I'll hold you to that, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this, shadow_lover! I took a bit from each separate prompt idea listed for this song, so hopefully that's alright.


End file.
